and let them do the whole history so it was an excerpt size in capturing people's voices one of the things was being lost in mountaintop removal is the storytelling and the people's voices that is what is being ground down into the ground so we wanted to make a book that preserve those voices and would let the people tell their own stories. this section i will read from and by already being active and standing up from the people now her late and is under threats and is at risk. it is called little acts of great news. she moves up the steep

mountains much like she must have as a little girl growing up and it will send a creek kentucky. her dog a mixed breed with a noble profile is barely able to keep the ball low the seams intend to do so. her steps are wide and she never stops talking eager to introduce us to the place that she loved so much, the place she is terrified of losing. like a young girl, money is conscious of everybody she points out deer tracks, a single red leaf tucker rating of the summer ground, a blue jay feather that has drifted down she runs her hand over the trunk of an oak and glances up at this guy and comments. this woman is one with the mountain and they know and respect each other in is a parent to not only the way may

talks about the mountain but the way she moves up with grace and ease stepping lightly to disturb the least amount of perth possible. even though she also says i cannot get appear as fast as i use to which is hard to believe she is a woman who is used to being in motion a medical professional a fiddler and activist record she moves with the determination her arms, her legs intent on the purpose and her feet on a mission. today she is under way to the high rock, her favorite place in the world and although she wants to take her time and enjoy the walk of she is eager to reached the ridge where she will encounter a natural castle of barack case eaker world that only the inhabitants of this holler know they have been frequenting since the early 1800's.

the nation is not only to take us to the high rock but to save them. they like most of the land may has not all of her life is in grave danger is started one morning november 2006 at the methodist church when a neighbor brag after the service that the mining company had approached him about buying his plan to start mining and the wilson creek it also claimed three other families have already sold and it turned out the neighbor was misinformed, and no one had sold anything yet. what the coal company is breathing down their neck out and it is certain that the company is intent to buy in and around wilson creek including the rich were we are now and may is not certain that her neighbors will lot cellpro money talks when you need it.

fearing if only one neighbor may sell been there would be a domino effect she secured space at a community summer -- center and went door-to-door inviting people to organize and five the coal company that seemed intent on invading their world. several months before this may is presiding over the second reading on a cold blood of december concerned citizens are gathered in the community center which used to be the lunchroom 40 elementary school may town is made up of 200 souls, abandons goals, four or five streets and a camper serves as the community store with the cigarettes with the handwriting on the exteriors walls. the mountains in a circle like jagged arms.

a thin at snowfalls like others and it makes the munis seem to blackguard the community center stage center is freezing but everybody brushes snowflakes from their hair the group is gathered close not only to hear but to gain more heat. may the sits on a couch waiting for people to arrive the others are caught up in various conversations and the talking is punctuated by laughter. i guess we should get started. it is so quiet but surprisingly everybody stops talking at once and it turns to face her however everything about may, her face, courage, the way she uses her hands suggest kindness and intelligence. this is a woman worth listening to. she launches into the meeting to get business done but not

aggressively she wants to include everyone to make sure all of those gathered have a chance to say there peace she goes around the room and allows people to introduce themselves and gives them time to make their announcement and many residents are here because they absolutely do not want the coal company to come into their hauler others are here because they have not figured everything out and want all the information they can get. some have already been lied to enter here to warn neighbors and others to not know what to believe. like many of the social movements an appellation of the it will soon creek movement is made up of women. to elegant older ladies and an earnest young woman who was new to the group to take into account everything around her a vivacious woman in her 60s who is wrapped in her husband's coats and gives off a wonderful ear to not give a what anybody thinks of her i

don't give a of what anybody thinks of me she is relating how she called off one of the men who came to her house to try to talk for into selling the circle around her collapses in laughter. several other women are there to represent their families who promised a fight to the bitter end before they sign two racal company known for bullying people. these are strong women tough as cold trucks come a clever as a fox and a spirited as music of the mountains. one of the young women is concerned will have been to hurt to asthmatic children of coal trucks start to run up and down the road? there will be so much dust off that road and looking around the room she twist her wedding band around her finger while she talks. the hands are hard-working and

chapped that have no scalding dishwater and mob water and have scrubbed counters and carried plates and grabbed a hot skillet handles she is more now just from trying to get by now she has another aggravation, a threat to her children. finally her hands become still an issue looks down briefly as if the stock has warned about the issue with her head and says if we let this company come in here i do not know what i will do because my children will not be able to stand it. well, we will have to make sure then they don't come in here than. way of speaking is reassuring and many women got a gathering of strong forces determined to fight back. may offers a reassuring smile and some of the ross -- frustration balls from a woman's shoulders. sometimes may things about

what it would be like to lose this mountain but then i cannot think about that. makes me feel like i am falling off of the edge of a cliff it is too painful. so the thing to do is hope that it does not have been pressed by realize that fighting the coal company is like david and goliath but then she remembers david and the planning his fight. she does not understand the people do not think there is anything wrong with mountaintop removal ishiguro's fidgety it is morally wrong because every mountain in eastern kentucky is ours, our heritage and in some cases it is the only legacy we have been a blast another mountain day blast away the future the wildlife, tourism, the watershed, the timber there is

no putting it back. she laughs may be to keep from crying. when we treat mountains like they are expandable all we know is it boils down to a short time profits with no justice for the people of the company's stock about overburden well we are the overburden their job is to remove overburden and retrieve the call we are the first level of overburden. we cannot let them remove the us. we can not give been precocious looked at the ritchie's perhaps imagining them that the draglines can remove the overburden and extract the coal then she clenches her job and her face is sealed she is fierce and determined i feel that we are being assaulted from all sides. that is what it is like to live here they take out guest, timber, coal all the time.

never stops for the balance i believe there ought to -- they should mine but they want to level everything i will not sit by and watch that happen. people ought to be able to live. thank you [applause] >> he is something else, is a the? when he joined our fight it expanded fell whole circle of it. it takes my breath away. silas house will be at the carmichael book table and will sign his book and the next coming up we have j. singh who co-wrote a book with him he is a writer, editor and musician from eastern kentucky he is the co-author of "something's

rising" appalachians fighting mountaintop removal" and the editor of we all live downstream the former editor and staff writer for equal justice magazine based in washington d.c. his works have appeared in kentucky living and the global review an accomplished musician he plays piano and bass and auto harpy graduated from george washington university in political communications and an interdisciplinary major of communication journalism and electronic media. [applause] >> hello louisville. good to see that you love the mountains. it is a great crowd rewind to thank everybody for coming out and supporting us in the fight against mountaintop removal we want to thank for the acts that went on. we have a local publisher here

and my next project will be out in a couple of weeks it is a and anthology called we all live downstream and it is about mountaintop removal from people across the country including a lot of students and it is from other writers like ashley judd and silas house and many, many more. i am excited about that. i will just take us over the river into west virginia from eastern kentucky and i will read from a piece about two the bonds and it is entitled to the endangered hillbilly. there is a heaviness that hangs over west virginia like the fall from the local river it goes through the streets past the empty storefronts up the mountainside to the rows

of houses that overlook the town. it has become the invisible resident a testament to the plight that has taken place over the years even after the process of the mining industry has soared. boarded up with supply would only a few businesses barely hold on an auto shop, allah office and a motel. the sign for a local diner is a bologna sandwich day appalachian stable inside a handful of people gather for the midday dinner. even in the midst of the light that trickles out onto the street one can hear the exhaustion. people work hard all of the town is located within boone county the leading coal producing county in the state and the at this county with the most mountaintop removal mines most 30 percent live below poverty line kohl has

left much high and dry. this town is dawning judy says. growing up here in the sixties it was a booming town by mother tells me in the forties it was even more booming them more cold at remind the poor we get. such candor has made the 57 year-old grandmother a controversial figure. coming from just up the road from number taller as she is taking -- used to taking her share of knocks her hazel eyes and voice defense she is from tough stock has been devoted to a grass-roots organization against being mountaintop removal she's a dime and anchor person who will speak my mind sometimes the words do not come out right if it is a

spade a caller the spade that is to i am and i cannot apologize for that. i lost my diplomacy a long time ago. she was raised to speaker mind the daughter of oliver, but thompson, she is proud of her country upbringing for her family has lived there for 10 generations my first memory was father and grandfather plowing the fields above my home remember the smell of the rich beautiful black earth. you are the mountain and the mountain is you. she also remembers playing with the mining gear and fought finding one of his paychecks might offer $15 that discovery perhaps more than any other, her father's pay was barely enough to provide for her family let alone to

compensate for the risk of his life and health. i remember walking up and down the railroad tracks at night picking up lumps of coal so we could stay warm. my memories of coal are not good memories. judy does not recall hearing her grumble my mommy complained and ranted and railed against the industry how they treated the miners my mother was the one who talked about mother jones and john lewis. my mother was also responsible to make sure my father received his black long benefit. he was old and used up and he had black long and needed to retire bree he still had children and grandchildren he had to raise. the coal company did not take this into account they denied compensation giving him the ultimatum go back to work or quit. he went back into the minds

but meanwhile judy mother hatched a brilliant scheme she said i will get a life insurance. so the agent came to the house and he said ms. thompson we cannot insure your husband he is very sick. and she said what is wrong with him? and he said he has black long he may live six months my mother said can you prove that? he said yes, sir, per right here is the paperwork that proves that he has black lung but the agent refused to turn over the piece of paper her mother pulled out a pistol that she had tucked into the big pockets of the house go and she pointed out that insurance man and said you are not leaving here with that piece of paper so that is how my father finally prove he had black lung a. [laughter] of a broad rebellious people have lost their swine and

something she blames on the coal industry. i am proud to be a hillbilly she shouts. i choose to call myself say appalachian american because people need to realize appalachian are a distinct ethnic group. she always mentions in her speeches and in the anti-mountaintop removal rally she is filled with righteous indignation by never new america thought that i was ignorant hillbilly until went to ohio when i was six result and i found out i was an enduring hill billion amaze me. bonds and feel of inferiority has been insider and a bubbles to the surprise when she things of mountaintop removal and it is destroying her culture she is so adamant about preserving culture that cool mountain watch created a t-shirt emblazoned with the cry save the endangered

hillbilly. they cannot keep enough in stock. some people say the were from a coal mining family and do speak out against coal you betrayed your heritage but i say the modern day miners are me trained their ancestors by destroying this land and who we are. she says god made mountains and the mountaineers agreed made coal mining i am sorry but that is the truth. here she looks out the picture of grandeur a car sputters by now and then somebody passes on the sidewalk she throws upper hand in the acknowledgement. beating back on the couch hurt postures offense i have lost a lot of friends over speaking out nobody in my family or nobody close i consider the people who were never my friends to begin with. my daughter bought me a stun gun for christmas because i have read threatened a couple of times you cannot look down you have to look them in the

eye and keep going. it is the old company's strategy divide and conquer and we have been torn into. it is a fact often acknowledged and conversations around the supper table and in line at the local dairy queen bear a man walks and wearing a t-shirt what appears to be a man's space morphing into a big day devilish mustache comes out from the snow. the a identity of this wine is the text above the picture and owed to the state's largest coal producer massey energy sucks the pig is the ceo blanket ship a pager and looks up from his chickens strip basket thanks brother he says he is a bad one. another rolls arise in giggles

she turns and shakes her head in disgust. a cadillac the mere mention i am so glad he was out today is in the great parks located 12 miles downstream the elementary school stands in the shadow of one of west virginia's largest in pound but which is operated by massey energy standing 385 feet tall it holds 2. 8 billion gallons another and pound it just built a few miles upstream contains 80 billion it makes some residents concerned for their safety despite repeated assurances from massey energy some still have their doubts the disaster from buffalo creek west virginia in 1952 and martin county kentucky in 2003 are too fresh in their

memory. we had better remember going on to blame the union for domination of the coal companies she recently witness the partnership between the new company when she traveled to washington d.c. to attend the congressional hearing and what she saw stopped heard dead in her tracks. i was standing there with my a stop mountaintop removal t-shirt and there was cecil roberts rubbing shoulders with bill taylor coming from a union family i about died it made me sick to make me know how corrupt the leadership has become. bonds also refuses to cut the local churches any slack a practicing christian she criticizes her face with their views on the environment and 518 mountaintop removal it is a distortion of god's earth.

more churches to buy back because they have coal miners in their congregation and there is a history there many were owned by the company's data want to divide there congregation's many mountain churches are subsidized by the coal company it is very complicated it is not black and white park ave just teach about god and guns but not the environment is changing. maybe more would enlist some years ago like any other child her grandson wandered into the creek to play his hands played in the water and he held what is wrong with the fish? bonds panicked and said get out of a creek and go look on his face covered to the quick anybody who sees there

grandbaby court in a stream of dead fish there is no way it can affect you. the coal company did more than just ignore her concerns they laughed at her. i saw the lawyer up the road and he said ms. bonds what do you want? i said i wanted them to quit running them at night and the black water stopped he said this is cool country parker he went on and on and said and i said you're not a lawyer i am looking for so i did not work with him instead bonds in 1999 saw a fire for a rally. it keeps are so busy she barely sleeps it is overtaking my life she confesses i write letters to the editor in my sleep and spend a lot of time and the road it is hard for a appalachian to travel that much i think i am doing it for

my children and grandchildren but it is hard to give up that family time. in harlem she tells a delegation to the united nations she is outraged most americans think there is i just because from the electricity very you ask them and they say it comes from the light switch. excuse me but i know where it comes from. because my blood sweat and tears space-bar every time you flip on bass which you poison my babies when you come to apple they show you were no longer in the united states of america no sir you are in the united states of appalachian and king cole rules with the iron fist. bonds is determined to loosen the coal industry group on the mountains the herd is just as much about the culture as it is the amount is. there are parts write-up the window she points james

earl's -- james earl jones was interviewed and he said mountain people are a different type of people and a landscape makes them different people they're not used to going anywhere the street where they have to be determined. bonds ads with that we have to keep working and fighting. that has become her mantra to keep fighting she whispers to herself looking out she has no intention of turning back now i will be there every step of the way. thank you [applause] >> what a pleasure it is that i get to work with both great women on a regular basis and honor them.

next and i just want to remind you jason howard will sign his book that the book tables of you want to purchase a book he will be glad to sign it for you. next we have a very special person, a great friend of mine. eric is a writer in residence to the university of kentucky and the author of lost mountains a year in the vanishing wilderness which chronicles the year he was witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain with a fitting name of lost mountain it is regarded as the first to talk about mountaintop removal mining to a national audience it one and a award from the sierra club and his new book is a bear can cost both the will be appearing on npr to talk about it soon broker eric? [applause]

>> thank you very much. i grew up in louisville and i spend a lot of time at carmichael's bookstore when i was little thinking how i wanted to grow to be a writer so congratulations for being the number one independent bookstore in the country. that is amazing [applause] we need to do it with energy with what they have done with books we need to decentralize and localize. i've lived in lexington now we have the largest per-capita footprint in the country and i want to talk about how we can begin to work on that i know you have a big one as well but i want to start by talking about the false dichotomy about jobs and the environment. in 2006, two miners died in an

underground mine because because of a can fire it -- conveyor belt that caught on fire and they died of smoke inhalation a few weeks before they died the president of massey energy since an employee -- a memo to all employees to have been asked by your residence to do anything other than run cool you need to ignore them and run cool that is what they did they did not leave the conveyor belt and it caught on fire and a the miners died. the coal industry does not care about miners and it does not care about their jobs. . .

when they realize that there was real movement for this wind project they began immediately blasting on coal river mountain. people petitioned the governor of west virginia to stop this. he wouldn't. he had taken over a million dollars from the coal industry. and it just seemed like there was no way that the citizens of

coal river mountain were going to beat king cole, and particularly nasty energy. and right when the blasting really started to completely eliminate the top of cold river mountain and completely eliminate the possibility for a wind farm local residents sat down and wrote a letter to brock obama. and he began the letter like this. he said, as i write i braced myself for another round of nerve wracking explosives being detonated above my home. i beg you to relight our time of hope and honor and immediately stop coal companies from blasting so near our homes. two weeks later the environs of protection agency suspended the entire massive coal permanent. there has never been a better time in the last 30 years to get

involved with this fight and now. people in the coal industry say, well, wind energy would only generate 5 percent of the electricity. mountain top removal only generates 5% of the electricity in the mountains. so now is really the time for us to be pushing this fight and to begin thinking about a new economy, a sustainable economy for the mountains. and profit said without vision the people perish. and i think what we have lacked in the state for a long time as a vision, a vision for the mountains. and this is the time for us to really begin to push your utility company, lg&e, to stop buying mountaintop removal call and to begin buying renewable energies. we have the technology to do this us. we can put up the wind turbins.

we can mount solar panels. we can feed all of that energy into a direct trade, direct grid smart grid. we can decentralize the power of kentucky, and we can take the heart-braking power away from people like don blankenship of massy energy. my teacher at the university of kentucky wrote the sentence the stuck with me for a long time. and the sentences this. distance negates responsibility. and like jason said a lot of people living in louisville and a lot of people in lexington don't even know where their electricity comes from. they don't know that when they build bigger homes in louisville and lexington they are leveling the mountains of eastern kentucky. and this is what we have to pass to close, this gap, this gap

between our consumption of energy here in this city and the production of energy in the mountains of eastern kentucky. so i urge you to do what you can, to really begin to take responsibility, to take responsibility for the way that we all can some energy. do that in whatever way you can. nobody has to do everything. we can all do something. you can do something in your church. you can do something in your school. you can do something where you work. you can do something in your community. think about your sources of energy and think about what you can do to begin working in no way that will stop the destruction of the mountains. i think we are at a crisis now where we have begun to realize that this american dream of accumulation and status and debt to and stress is really not what

we want. and so i think we are at a very radical place for now where we can say two things. one, we can't sustain the way we are living in this country and we don't really want to sustain it anyway. what we really want is solid community, local economies, and a common cause. i came across a statistic that said the social scientists are measuring happiness now and what causes saponins. and one of the findings is that people are happiest when they are doing two things, when they are dancing and when they are volunteering. you can do both tonight. i think that is just a testament to how much we need that sense of community. we need that sense of common cause. conte said something that i think is very important to this

this fight. ghandi said first they ignore you. then they laugh at you. then they fight you. then you win. they have ignored us. five years ago they started laughing at us. now they're going to spend $90 million lobbying congress to fight us. and then we're going to win. a lot of people ask me how i'd do this without getting depressed. i just want to leave you with something, the best answer to that question comes from something wendell berry said 42 years ago when he was riding in defense of the red river gorge, when the army corps of engineers wanted to flood the red river gorge. he wrote a book about it and as part of stopping that flooding of the court. this is what he read. he said a man cannot this bear

if he can imagine a better life and if he can enact something of its possibility. this is what we need to do. we need to imagine a better future for the seville and for the mountains. then we need to work to enact it. thank you. [applauding] >> silas house is a best-selling novelist whose work has been published. he teaches at the lincoln memorial university. jason howard is the editor of we all live downstream. he has also written for equal justice magazine and the blue will review. for more information you can go to lmu.net.edu.

>> this summer book tv is asking what are you reading? >> very different books. but a really powerful and we have enjoyed reading those. two books i want to read, the talk about lincoln's cabinet and also william julius wilson, a sociologist at harvard. those are two books of want to read for myself. two children at home. by the end of the summer. >> to see more summer reading list and of the program information visit our web site at booktv.org. >> what is the black belt?

>> the black belt is a region of america, region of the south that extends from virginia, the coast of virginia, all the way. and its historical roots or origins really did back to to te antebellum period. it's the place where african-americans form a majority of the population. but plantation agriculture, primarily continent really serve as the economic engine for the region. and said that dates back. but that stretches for word to the middle of the 20th century and beyond where african americans are formed the majority of the population and agriculture remains dominant. in each state the black belt forms a distinct regions. so in alabama it's as string of about 15 counties stretching from the border of georgia to central alabama to the border of

mississippi. that is the heart of the african-american population in alabama. but also with the exception of mississippi -- in most of these seven states that is where you find african americans in the majority of the populations. african americans represent 80 percent of the population. so when we think about migration of african americans, the great migrations in the first half of world war one and world war ii, they are coming out of the black belt. and so it is not only the center of the african-american population, but it really serves as a record for the emerging black population in the urban areas of the north and west. >> tell us. >> well, it is really the buckle of the alabama black belt. geographically it is located

between montgomery and selma. member to the east and some of to the west. it was founded or established in the 1830's. and by 1865 -- it has a long history. by 1865 it was the center of gun production. it also develops and. >> a lot of slavery. >> at 70. plantation slavery revolving around cotton was the absolute court. but over time it remained an agrarian economy tied to the exploitation of african american labor. all the way through the post-world war two era. african americans remain the majority of the population. 80 percent black. in 1965 there are precise the zero registered black voters. it is a white minority. >> zero? >> and zero. not a small percentage, zero.

and it's 80 percent african-american. the reason for that was because of this long legacy of racial violence. african americans were excluded wisely because from the political process largely because of their need as exploitable laborers, but it was made possible by the use and a long memory of violence dating back to the emancipation. and so local people and and also those who were familiar referred to it as bloody because of this long history of really a vicious form of violent white supremacy. >> so what happened, professor, in 1966? >> well, it is amazing. this is really a remarkable story. 80 percent black. zero registered black voters.

by the end of 1966 of local movement had not only -- >> sncc? >> student non-violent coordinating committee. a grass roots civil rights organization. by the end of 1966 not only had they succeeded in restoring the majority of african american voters, but they had created an independent countywide political party to a challenge the local white democrats for control of the county courthouse. and they didn't just create a political party that was a mere shadow of the normal democratic party which revolves around politics, but they created a radically democratic party. all people have the right and

hold within them the possibility to control or make the decisions that affect their lives. so they said domestic workers, sharecroppers, people with limited education, african-americans who have been disenfranchised ought to become the sheriff. ought to have a right. so it is really a remarkable story of transition and the possibility. challenging white supremacy to the creation of independent. >> how did that happen? >> the long process of grass roots organizing. begins in early march with a handful of people deciding that we are going to try to register to vote. and so they go down to the courthouse the first day to register. all of them are turned away. they are asked to leave their name to identify who they were which was a dangerous bang because now the white community knew who they work, and they

were exposed to the possibilities of economic and physical retaliation. >> and was there retaliation? >> and there was. as the movement begins to grow person by person, household by household, community by community, african americans member of elite sharecropper's are evicted on mass. they actually by the end of december had to form a tent city. and that is just one aspect. night writers repeatedly targeted african american leaders, but also people in a tent city, anybody who housed and was associated with sncc activists was targeted for racial violence. people lost their job. many people had to leave the county. some never came back. but it was this long process. despite the violence, despite the possibility that he would lose a job they continue to organize, and not just around the boat. that was the initial catalyst, but like so much of the african

american freedom struggle that gets ignored they quickly moved beyond the about to fight for quality education by improving segregated black schools. the schools were still segregated a decade after brown. desegregate white schools. been improved and increased the opportunities for black farmers. and so they are organizing black farmers. and then of course moving beyond the vote to actually organize independent political parties to gain control of the county courthouse. >> in lowndes 80 percent african-american 1966. what kind of participation in the lowndes freedom organization was there? >> slow at first. >> a lot of fear? >> a lot of fear. and people were -- it is funny because when stokely oakley, carmichael, and sncc move in they consciously make the

decision not to talk about creating an independent political party. they knew that -- how is this going to work? in other words they knew that the democratic party was unnecessarily for them, but they say what is this all turned to the you are talking about and is it really possible? but after developing some eight or nine months of movement experiences people say, you know what, the democratic party is not plan to lend as an. jonathan daniels, a sncc volunteer is murdered in cold blood. so reflecting on these experiences lead people slowly by dozens at first and by may of '66 when they hold their convention about 900 people participate in that county. 5,000 eligible black voters. 900 show up and participate in this primary the gets them on the ballot. and by the time the november elections you have roughly about 2000-2200 african americans cast their ballots in the vote.

and so many others returned away. and those living on sharecropping farms were still afraid. many teachers were afraid for fear of losing their jobs. >> and how did, professor, how did they go from zero registered voters to the number of registered voters that they had? how did they get around all the obstacles? >> that is the slow and hard work of canvassing. i mean, the principal obstacle at the time was here. it was a legitimate fear of white violence. but by knocking on those doors, tapping into social networks, tapping into community networks, of drawing people in person by person, family by family and saying we are all in this together. and if you want to change your conditions one of the things that sncc organizers talked

about, this isn't politics for the sake of politics. this is actually, if you want to change your life circumstances, if you want paid roles that you need to join the movement. if you want to have a say in the decisions that affect your lives, where your children to school, then you need to join the movement. and it's slow going. they knock on doors. people look at them and say, look, very courteous. we don't want to get in that mess. we know it's dangerous. but it begins to build momentum, not only around the vote, but also around these broader ideas and themes, which i call freedom rides. it's that combination of civil rights. but then also human rights, education, quality housing. and it's talking to people about that that really gets them involved and offering them a program for securing it that gets people to sign up to join and make up public decision to support u:7the movement.

>> who is john? >> the central figure. he is a local person who rose up in lowndes county in the 1940's after a graduates. he returns in the late '50's. and while he was in birmingham he worked with the movement there working with fred shuttlesworth. and the alabama christian movement for human rights. and when he returns in 1960 he's talking to people and trying to get them interested in of voter registration campaign. focusing, you know, it's too dangerous, too risky. in 1955 he is able to get a couple people to go down with him. and he serves eventually as the chairperson of the local

movement organization. and as the chair person of the lowndes county freedom organization, the independent political party. he doesn't run for office in 1966, but in 1970 he is actually elected as the first african american sheriff in lowndes county. the book talked about, what is the trajectory of black politics from that moment forward? well, the movement doesn't have any without him. at least it doesn't have to end the way that it does without john hulett. >> in 1966 did the lowndes county freedom organization have electoral success? >> no. >> why not? >> for a couple reasons. in the november election they run seven african american candidates for local office. all are defeated by a couple of hundred votes. for a myriad of reasons. one was intimidation on election

day. ballot fraud. sending people to though ron wrong polling site. bringing in, trucking in from plantation african american workers and giving them ballots and say, listen, this is the ballot. these are the people you're voting for. obviously all white democrats. that's it. they had no choice. and then some faulty organizing. organizers and the movement said, we weren't as prepared as we could have been. we have a transportation system, but it wasn't as effective as it could have been. we're still young at this and there are still people we have to bring in. they tried, and they came close. and it was. so individually they weren't successful, but because they

receive 40% of the total vote, which is a remarkable number and percentage for a start up third-party and 80 percent of the african-american vote, they were able to get on the ballot. they were able to be recognized by the state. and so the black panthers which later on the black panther party, that black panther symbol becomes a permanent presence for the immediate future in the state of alabama for elections. >> was the republican party a viable option? >> a single party state. and so it was democrats or nothing. and in fact, they entertained -- the local folks entertained the idea of joining the democratic party and voting democratic, but as sen as they hey begin to register on mass when the voting rights act is signed in 1965 in federal registrars coming in.

because of that pressure they have been putting on the local government are able to register. they are the democratic party says, we are going to raise the filing fee from $5 and $50 to $500 dollars and $1,000. so the average african-american was making $900 which is well below the poverty level. so the person who purposefully -- and this is the party of george wallace. the state party symbol was white supremacy. so they were purposely trying to exclude them. and that was part of the political education process that local people were going through. weighing their options. so the republican party was really nonexistent at the local level. it was democrats are nothing. no room for us in the democratic party. >> hasan kwame jeffries, tell us

about the lowndes county, alabama today. >> lowndes county today has come a long way politically. african americans by 1980 had gained control of the county courthouse. they were sitting in the majority of the seats in public office, local public office. but although the politics changed in terms of black representation, very little else changed. so african americans gained political power, but they did not gain economic power. as a result of that the poverty still is extremely high. one of the poorest counties not only in alabama but in the state as a whole. so political power did not translate into economic power. there was also the question. one of the things that happens in this moment is they create this really radically democratic new kind of politics, what i

call freedom politics, mixing the democratic organizing with these human rights civil rights goals. and that was the core of the freedom of the independent party. but after a while once in office even though that was really the political inspiration for gaining political power those black elected officials, including hulett began to move away from those freedom politics that were at the core of the movement into more traditional american politics. so not only is there not that economic change that people had hoped for, but even in the political realm. stokely carmichael coined the phrase. black political visibility is not necessarily black power. it does not translate into african-american empowerment. >> how long did it john hulett served as sheriff? >> twenty-four years.

he has really become the defender of black politics. eventually he did develop an opposition on the african american side, people looking at him as a political boss. and contesting, what happened to the freedom politics that you were so instrumental in? so the decisions that he makes. and in 1994 he leaves the sheriff's office and becomes probate judge. stays in office until 2000 and hands off to his son, john hulett jr. who remains probate judge today. and john hulett just passed away recently just three years ago. his legacy remains politically. >> bloody lowndes civil rights and black power. hasan kwame jeffries. >> assistant professor of

history at the ohio state university. african american history, civil-rights movement, black power, and also u.s. history. >> this is your first book? >> my first book. >> published by new york university press. >> radio talk-show executive brian jennings on the new fairness doctrine, why it is a bad idea an alternative. he is interviewed by radio and television commentator monica crowley on after words, part of a c-span2 and book tv weekend.